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Two years ago I was in a really bad place. I’d never had a girlfriend, I had met a couple (literally 2) girls online and had had a total of 4 dates between them. Leading up to this I’d never had any luck with women. I love life was a string of me falling for girls, and eventually getting my heartbroken. My level of self loathing was immeasurable. It was then I met a girl online, she was from the Philippines. Now, it is unfair to class all Filipinos the same, but you can probably guess that this story doesn’t have a happy ending.

She was my first relationship, she was the first woman to tell me she loved me. We had only met once. I was head over heels and I never realised how much denial I was in. I thought I was happy but it’s only now that it’s over that I can see what an idiot I was.

She never loved me, I just wish I realised this 3 grand sooner. The amount of lies she spoon fead me that I was just willing to except. At one point someone I know actually created a fake profile and coerced her. I had evidence right in front of me and I screamed in its face and denied it’s existence.

I’m not too sure what I did to deserve this, I’m pretty sure that I’m a good, if not at least decent human being. I am pathetic. I have wasted the last two years of my life, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t tell any of my friends, I can’t tell my family. I can’t tell anyone. So I thought I would post my story on some random page on the Internet for some strangers to see in the hopes just getting it off my chest would make me feel better.

In recent years Capcom hasn’t had a good reputation. The on disk DLC controversy of Street Fighter X Tekken comes to mind as one of the worst things they’ve done. Like many game companies lately they are forgetting to use common sense in an attempt to try to make more money.

This never really effected me, however, I don’t play many Capcom franchises. Just the one actually, and it’s one I hold close to my heart. Ace Attorney.

In case you haven’t heard of it it’s a visual novel series that sees you playing as a defence attorney, investigating crime sense and then presenting the evidence you find in court. It really shouldn’t work as a game but it does mostly to the amazing localisation of the game. A combination of hilariousness, drama and completely outlandish situations. There have currently been 5 games in the series released in the west, 4 games from the main series where you play as a defence attorney (Phoenix Wright in the first trilogy and Apollo Justice in the 4th game) and a spin off that has you play as prosecutor Miles Edgeworth (Phoenix’s rival).

It was after the 5th game (Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth) was released Capcom started making some choices that started to anger fans of the series.

Capcom decided to go with a wait and see approach with the sequel to Investigations. They held off on the localisation, and for the whole time I held out hope that I would get the DS game eventually. My hopes where dashed this year, however.

Ghostlight is a company that localises many Atlus projects in Europe. A little while ago they released a message on their site saying how difficult it is to get approval to release a DS game now. This could just be an excuse though, they might actually just be scared to bring something out for the DS worrying that it won’t sell. It doesn’t really matter though which is the actually reason it highlights and a DS game I really unlikely to get released now.

Now I can completely understand this but what gets me is Capcom’s attitude. They have pretty much been holding this game hostage. Saying that if other games sell well they would consider realising the game. They said it when they released Ghost Trick, and when they re-released the Ace Attorney trilogy for WiiWare and iOS. Another recent decision made me feel that Investigations 2 had the final nail put in its coffin. The newest Ace Attorney game would be launch on the 3DS…but only digitally.

At first I found this so frustrating, but I have to understand Capcom’s stand point, they are trying to save on costs, localising this game in the first place is a risk. But, I feel that there is something they could have done to minimise this risk, even if it is only slightly.

Most people have heard of Professor Layton, he has a sizeable following world wide. Before the launch of the 3DS the cross over game Professor Layton Vs Ace Attorney was announced, put simply it was the reason I got a 3DS. Disappointingly Capcom has also refused to bring this game out in the west. It seems to me that they could have brought this game out, capitalised on Layton’s popularity and this would have raised Ace Attorney’s profile at the same time. Unfortunately what Capcom has done may end up hurting both game chances at success.

I’m thankful that I’m getting Ace Attorney 5 at the very least, it’s announcement for the west is at least a step in the right direction, but I’m keeping an eye on things. This is Capcom we’re talking about here. I’m expecting them to mess up on the pricing or even have the date pushed back at some point.

After a lot of though I’ve decided my what my game of the year 2012 was. I played a lot of amazing games last year but there is still one that pops into my head from time to time that I’d love to play through again. For anyone that’s interested 2011’s game of the year was the amazing Wii exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles, for the same reason.

I think for me last year Catherine really stole the show. It was so different from anything else that came out last year or for the past few years actually. When someone hasn’t heard of the game telling them its half dating sim, half survival horror puzzle game and its enough for them to be interested in hearing more. And the fact that the story revolved around something most people could relate to, was good enough to get you hooked. Yes the main character Vincent was a complete moron, I mean I’ve never meet a guy as pathetic had him that’s even been able to go near a woman never mind get a girlfriend. But it did feel like games are “growing up” tackling the story of a struggling couple in a rut, as apposed to a couple just starting out and the game ends all happily ever after with their first kiss.

Gameplay wise it’s over the top fun. I mean block puzzle games are always fun, there is just something hilarious about putting in a human character to move the blocks about. Add a bunch of bipedal killer sheep, trap block to keep things fresh and some absolutely bizarre bosses and you have yourself a good time. The bosses Vincent face are all nightmares, based on his worst fears at the time. Personal highlights are the Immoral Beast (a jumbled collection of body parts) and Child with Chainsaw (self explanatory).

No I’m not about to pretend that it’s a prefect game, it has its flaws. For being such a story focused game most of the characters are pretty 2 dimensional, although they’ll have one or two redeeming qualities. And there was a very strange choice to reverse the controls whenever the player moves Vincent behind the wall of blocks.

Still I loved the game from start to finish, it’s not many games I get the urge to play right away after finishing, and I can’t wait to play it again…if only it wasn’t for the back catalogue I have to play thought.

So Catherine was my number one game of last year, I worked out a top 10, not in any particular order though, I’ll try to talk about them at some point.

So, this year is shaping up to be a good gaming year, no not the Playstation 4 it has nothing to excite me at the moment, there is so much coming out. But this year more than ever before I know I need to be a bit more grown up with my money. I’ve been trying to limit myself to one retail game a month and so far I’ve stuck to it. With January’s disappointment that was Anarchy Reigns, and this months wonderful Ni No Kuni.

But it’s looking like this is going to get a lot trickier to stick to just one game a month. The almost now mythical (at least to Europe) SMT Devil Surviver (1 and 2) are now confirmed for a March release I’ve had an awkward time getting into to SMT and Persona but for some reason I’ve preordered both games worried that will become hard to find and over priced if I don’t. Sadly this means I’ll be neglecting poor little Luigi next month haha.

I do really need to cool down a little with Pokémon X and Y, Bayonetta 2, Mario & Luigi Dream Team, Project X Zone and Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII all preordered. How strange it’s a good year for me to be a gamer and a bad one at the same time haha.